what disappointed me is that they talked a lot about past quotes but what about what a secretary of defense is confronting today? what about the war in afghanistan? what about the war on terrorism? what about the budget sequester? >> ruth, what do you think, does panetta have a point there? >> i think he totally has a point. i think that the thing that was striking about the hague will confirmation hearing was the really poor performance on both sides. yes, the nominee did a terrible job answering entirely predictable questions and handling those, but also, the senators did a predictable but also very poor job of probing seriously his views, not just what he said in the past, but his views on the various things that will face the secretary of defense going forward. i think one thing that is likely to me is that despite his poor performance, he is going to be confirmed as secretary of defense, and so i would for one like to know some of the answers to those questions. >> so one of the possibilities here, this is more about optics, david brooks suggesting that chuck hagel simply go to the pre